Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of jhunewsletter.com - The Johns Hopkins News-Letter's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
Do you hear that wooshing noise? That’s the sound of this semester positively flying by! As we get into the final weeks of the semester, there’s guaranteed to be more and more live events happening on campus as students come show off what they’ve been working on these past months. The live events this week are all super cool, so definitely go check them out!
Those who know Adrianne Lenker, indie folk singer and lead vocalist of Big Thief, cannot help but feel like she has done it again — that is, retreat to a little cabin in the woods and come back to us with an album full of free treasure. For those who are unfamiliar, here is what you must know: She is tender, she strikes hard. With deft wit and infinite care she will take you under her wing and sing you songs about the soft corners of the world. She will spook you and reassure you in turns.
Rise and shine! The second half of the semester is here. I hope you enjoyed your break, although I know most of us still had to do work here and there. That’s Hopkins. C’est la vie. In any case, I hope you caught up on all the shows, films, books and music you put off for midterm exams and essays, because the entertainment industry stops for no one.
I admit, I’m a simple being. It takes relatively little to make me happy: warm socks straight from the dryer, cookies fresh from the oven, no homework or impending midterms to stress about and — dragon movies. I will watch any movie with a dragon in it. The Hobbit? Bring it on. How to Train Your Dragon? Of course. Shrek? A classic.
Immanuel Kant, a cardinal and a British millionairess walk onto a steamship headed for America — it sounds like the start of a joke, or, a properly written absurdist play. For the sake of this article, it turns out to be the latter.
It’s the last stretch before spring break! Are you as tired as I am? I am definitely looking forward to going home and relaxing (or at least, pretending to relax while inwardly stressing about how quickly the semester is going by).
We know the genre well by now: indie sweethearts who sing witty love songs and lush rage anthems, their voices turning everything into honey. Think Clairo, beabadoobee, Laufey, mxmtoon and, on occasion, Taylor Swift. They are girly, sugar and spice, but their songs are just as much about being sharp as they are about softness. They live in the intimate pocket of a bedroom, but their lyrical world extends much farther. For most of her musical career, Faye Webster has been no exception to this category, her music conjuring images of unlaundered bedsheets, lullabies and absent boyfriends.
The sense of anticipation and buildup for Dune: Part Two ahead of its release to theaters was intense. Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune, the film debuted on March 1 with a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.9 on IMDb. Comparisons were made to acclaimed franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. One early review I read was so overwhelmed that it simply stated, “CINEMA!!!!!!”
The list curated for this week was not easy. The truth is, after the postponements — caused by actors’ and writers’ strikes in 2023 — have finally ended, we’re getting a surge of new content, and not only in the “To watch...” category. Ariana Grande’s new album, for example, would have been released much later had she not had a break from filming Wicked (2024). The dark fantasy film Damsel, originally set to be released in October 2023, was pushed back alongside five other films due to the strikes.
Cleaning the bathroom is usually an annoying, insignificant task. Wim Wenders’ latest film, Perfect Days, takes this chore and transforms it into a vessel for gratitude. The film follows a series of days in the life of a Japanese bathroom cleaner, Hirayama, in minute detail. His everyday routine is monotonous and, on the surface, decently bleak. But despite a premise that is fairly uncompelling on the surface, Perfect Days is a moving depiction of finding meaning in the mundane.
If you ever sit in your bed and get the sudden urge to watch a group of some of the world’s cockiest men drive around in circles with super fast cars, Formula 1: Drive to Survive might just be the thing for you.
I’ve only done improvisation once in my life. It was not voluntary. One of my English classes in high school required it to help us “loosen up” and get into character before we performed scenes from the Shakespeare play we were reading. I have never had a more humbling experience in my life, but I learned the basic mantra of improv: “Yes, and...”
The following is a conversation with Susan Elizabeth Shaw, an actress from the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts, who played in the 2023 blockbuster Oppenheimer, a film that brought discussions on ethics in scientific research to a mainstream audience. Shaw played Laurie Schwab Zabin, a PhD graduate and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health). Zabin was a major figure in the fight for reproductive health, both in Baltimore and the rest of the world. From her volunteer work at Planned Parenthood to her founded organizations which increased accessibility and awareness for contraceptives, Zabin was dedicated to using her research for the greater good, making her presence in Oppenheimer more than fitting.
As the midterm season finally comes upon us (and probably won’t fade out until late April), we at the Arts & Entertainment section think that now is the best time to ignore all your responsibilities and spend a night at the theater or curled up with a good book!
If you’re like me, you’re getting to the age where, just every once in a while, someone you knew from school gets married. Just this morning, I saw a post from a girl I was close friends with back in elementary school celebrating her marriage. I was shocked. In my memory she’s still a child, just a little girl with pigtails and glasses, and now she’s starting a whole new phase of her life. This terrifying and exciting transition from girlhood to womanhood, and the role of marriage as the boundary between the two, is explored in Ana Sokolović’s contemporary opera Svadba.
We’re in store for a warmer week, and I thank the Lord that we are. I’m a native Baltimorean and even for me this past week was miserable — not because of Valentine’s Day, although that didn’t exactly help. Doesn’t it feel like the spring semester is zipping by? Then again, when doesn’t it feel like that?
Can you ever be too lucky? Is there such a thing as having too much luck? Before reading the novel With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer, I probably would have answered “no.” Why wouldn’t you want to wake up on the right side of the bed every morning? Why wouldn’t you want to avoid stepping in a mound of dog poop on the sidewalk or splattering tomato sauce on a white shirt? Why wouldn’t you want to always be lucky?
If you want to know a place — I mean, really know a place — then here is what you do: You start by walking around, making sure to pay close attention to everything you see. Absorb it all, even (especially) small things, like cracks in the sidewalk where the grass shoots out. Then, when you get back to someplace comfortable, sit down and do some research on the history of the place. It may sound tedious, but this is part of it. Get to know the people who have lived there and the things that have happened, especially those that interest you. Then go for another walk. I promise it will feel different the second time.
Some words of advice before you start watching Upgraded: Do not watch it in a public setting. Not because it’s explicit or graphic or any of those reasons you might be thinking — shame, shame — but because it’s surprisingly funny. I may or may not have started watching it in a study lounge and had to remove myself because I was laughing so loudly in the opening 10 minutes.
Critics are talking about Kanye West (Ye) irresponsibly.